My Fair Lady (1964)

A misogynistic and snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society.

Director:

George Cukor

Writers:

Alan Jay Lerner (book), George Bernard Shaw (play),

Stars:

Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway

Won 8 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Audrey Hepburn	...	Eliza Doolittle
Rex Harrison	...	Professor Henry Higgins
Stanley Holloway	...	Alfred P. Doolittle
Wilfrid Hyde-White	...	Colonel Hugh Pickering
Gladys Cooper	...	Mrs. Higgins
Jeremy Brett	...	Freddy Eynsford-Hill
Theodore Bikel	...	Zoltan Karpathy
Mona Washbourne	...	Mrs. Pearce
Isobel Elsom	...	Mrs. Eynsford-Hill
John Holland	...	Butler

Storyline

Gloriously witty adaptation of the Broadway musical about Professor Henry Higgins, who takes a bet from Colonel Pickering that he can transform unrefined, dirty Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a lady, and fool everyone into thinking she really is one, too! He does, and thus young aristocrat Freddy Eynsford-Hill falls madly in love with her. But when Higgins takes all the credit and forgets to acknowledge her efforts, Eliza angrily leaves him for Freddy, and suddenly Higgins realizes he's grown accustomed to her face and can't really live without it.

---

Plot Keywords:

flower girl | professor | wager | linguist | street | 

---

Taglines:

The loverliest motion picture of them all!

---

Genres:

Drama | Family | Musical | Romance

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 1964 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mi bella dama

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$17,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$72,000,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

170 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) DTS (re-release) Dolby Digital (re-release) Mono (16 mm prints) Mono (35 mm optical prints) 70 mm 6-Track (RCA Sound Recording) (70 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Most roadshow film presentations made at that time had an overture recorded especially for the film, meant to be heard while the lights in the theater were still up and the movie screen curtains were still closed. Then, at the end of the overture, the lights would go down and the film would start with what was known as its Main Title music. The overture to the stage version of "My Fair Lady" was longer than the film's opening credits, but Lerner and Loewe apparently still wanted to use it. So, rather than using the typical roadshow format of Overture and Main Title music to get around this, the filmmakers shot the film so that half of the Overture is heard against shots of flowers appearing on the screen; then halfway through the Overture, the lights go down and the opening credits begin.

---

Goofs

When Professor Higgins talks about the breakfast cakes, Colonel Pickering drinks his coffee and puts the cup back on the saucer. But in the close up shot he repeats the same action.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
[sounds from crowd, occasionally a word or phrase, indistinct and mostly not associated with a character]
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: Don't just stand there, Freddy, go and find a cab.
Freddy Eynsford-Hill: All right, I'll get it, I'll get it.

---

Crazy Credits

In the posters, playbills and the original cast album for the stage version of "My Fair Lady", the credits always read "based on Bernard Shaw's 'Pygmalion' ", letting the audience know what play "My Fair Lady" was actually adapted from. The movie credits simply read "from a play by Bernard Shaw".

---

Connections

Referenced in Pitch (1997)

---

Soundtracks

"You Did It"
(1956) (uncredited)
Music by Frederick Loewe
Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Performed by Rex Harrison, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Audrey Hepburn (dubbed by Marni Nixon), and Ensemble

User Reviews

My Fair and My Favorite:

I think of this musical as revolutionary, startling, glaring, and visually out of this world. One of its scenes brings me to the state that I can only describe as "esthetical orgasm" if I ever had one. It is gorgeous, intelligent, and one of the most beloved and brilliant romantic comedies. It's got music that makes you want to dance all night, and it's got an actress who possessed class, style and the kind of beauty and charm that would never be reincarnated after she was gone. "My Fair Lady" (1964) directed by George Cukor is a great musical but is perfect no matter what genre you are looking at - Comedy / Family / Musical / Romance / Drama - it's got something for everyone - for all ages, for all eras, for all countries, for all continents. I have a friend. We almost never agree upon any movie - anything I like he would usually stamp as "rubbish". There is not too much to reply to this argument but when we both watch the "Opening Ascot races" scene in "My Fair Lady" with its harmony in white-black-gray (and who knew that color gray has so many shades and nuances), and then the harmony gets slightly distorted by Henry Higgins's brown suit and then as apotheosis, Eliza appears in an incredible black/white dress with a tiny red bow which completes this harmony, this feast of colors (and there are only five of them but you would think there are myriads) and that little bow is a last stroke, the stroke of a visual genius and that is magic...Every time during this scene I see the tears on my cynic-friend's eyes and I know that we both witnessed incredible moment created by the power of the human imagination.